Mom Letter #12 - March 7, 2008 - Reporting weather from Chicago to be 27 F.
Dear Thom,Hey there recruit Thom!! How’s my son?? Are they treating you well? Ok, working you hard, but you are safe and sound each night, right? I think it would look bad on a DI’s records if they kept sending you to the docs. I’m not sure if by now you are in the stages of being out in the field doing things with the Rifles and such, or if you are even past that stage. Because my letters aren’t timed right … we’re trying to bypass those thoughts. If you’d like to write and tell me where you are at, I’ll send more current letters right away. And, just let some of these older letters filter in. That’s right double letters! Just until they run their course.
Shoot, by the time it’s ok to be writing to you … I could have almost 30 letters – shoo! Maybe we’ll miss a day or two … don’t even want to think of that – trying to build discipline alongside you.
I don’t know what you think of your DI’s by now. I know in yesterday’s letter I had sent something stating stages of thinking about things in boot camp – especially of the DI’s. I could see what it had said as being true for many – but, maybe not all. People would be coming in at all different stages. I’m thinking that guys don’t talk about their feelings as much as girls, but you’ve had a chance to hear some of the guys’ grief – if not adding your own. That’s probably a healthy thing to go through. Just so you keep in mind it’s a stage in this process – it won’t last throughout the whole process. You are like a recruit evolving. It’ll get more positive. I know, I know … you’re not in the mood for Mom psychology, right?
Trying our best not to upset you, but still feel like a mother hen watching out for her chick! Yes Thom, I know you can take care of yourself, AND I know you are in a MAN CAMP. Sheesh, ok, ok … BUT … you’re still my Thom-Thom k?? Hmpf!
Ok, ok we’re going to be taking off in a minute because we have our big monthly meeting – first Friday of the month. It’s the Administrative meeting.
Ok, now it’s after.
The St. Rose admin team is Sister Theresa, Rich, the 3 Q’s, and this time an extra sister Mary Patricia. She’s helping in group II. The basic pecking order here is the Administrator – Sister Theresa, Consultant and Workshop – Rich, Q’s Holly and I with our own specialties – my specialties are staff trainer, program developer, group trainer and accreditation specialist and I have a case load of 10 clients– Holly’s got financial assistance with the state and a special sub-set home-base program (also a matter of adjusting state funding), and a case load of 17, plus a group, and the new Q Candace has a caseload of 17, she does Group 1 on Mondays, and she does a small choir group. Q or QMRP stands for Qualified Mental Retardation Professional. It’s a BA degree job in a social/psychology orientated field. (I’ve got the hardest job – Holly’s just routine paperwork BLAH! Fill-in the blanks) umm … we’re a little competitive.
The DSPs -Direct Support Persons are under us with high school degrees. There are eight of them Brandy – Leadership Group, Sue – Group 1, Theresa – Group 2, Maria – Group 3, and Theresa & Stephanie – Group 4. Plus there is Margarita who roams around subbing in, driving and doing housekeeping. Imelda has been doing a lot of maternity leave, but she’s supposed to be doing art and trips, and Rosa is the secretary interpreter. Maria, Stephanie, Margarita, and Imelda also speak Spanish.
Hmm, I guess that’s it … you got the whole St. Rose.
Ok, don’t lose those last paragraphs … save them for a time when you’re not so tired. Then you can imagine it like a small play and these are the characters.
It’s going to make the next 20 or more years of you being away a lot easier to do.
It’s easier if you think – umm EVERY one thinks they are the boss hehehe. There are other things going on like committee’s and boards, but this is the core of St. Rose. We have about 46 clients or adults with Developmental disabilities (mental retardation) come for 6 hours a day to go through general life training and job coaching. They are from 21 through about 48 years and their range of achievement is from mild to severe/profound, but 75% are moderate which means they talk, and think and do stuff like you’d expect well I don’t know I’ve been around them so long I think they seem normal. 49% of the clients are Spanish, 30% are Black, 17% are White, and 4% are Asian.
The people who are moderate don’t write – though many copy well, do math or money well, or tell time, but they care and share and love purely and they try harder than anything! About 20% also have some kind of mental disability, but then again so do I. So we’ll let that go. To them I’m Ms. Ann and they know me as a counselor/teacher/friend or authority when they need one. The only one that trumps me hehehe is Sr. Theresa. Yup, yup they know it.
Sr. Theresa is a very strong 80’s year old nun and she likes to trump people … I think you could easily compare her to a drill sergeant. First you think she’s horrible, and then you get to loving and admiring her and hoping she’ll stay forever. Believe me … she’s not planning to go anywhere. She shovels the front walk before anyone gets here, leads the place, takes charge of everything, but still likes to retire about 2:30 pm for a nap. We think that’s reasonable. By then the clients are gone and we can wake her, but everyone tries to avoid it like the dickens! She’d be like you couldn’t take care of that? Yeeks!
Ok, I’ll stop for the time being … but just so you know the team players. I’m probably not ever going to talk about many more people. I’m not part of any organization, don’t go to church or nuthin. OH there is one thing! I’m a part of the zoo! I’m a regular member. On my better weekends (closes too early on weekdays), I like to go to the zoo with or without Rich to take pictures and walk.
I take my wheel chair and go as long as I can walk and then I sit. It’s pretty cool. It’s my “other” thing. Shoot just a chatty Cathy today. Ok, ok I can stop.
Shhhhh.
Anyway … the meeting went well. Everyone was nice. Rich got scolded a little by Sr. because Rosa’s computer is down and Sr. wants to blame him. Rich has a program on there to use for client payroll – they do workshop work – and it wasn’t working … Rosa – the secretary called the software company 20 times and now they say they’ll have to start charging her, but Sr. says WHY? You haven’t fixed anything, but the question remains – is it a hardware or a software problem – and Sr. should have called in our computer Geek person instead of Rosa, but she didn’t want to pay His cost. So Rich got blamed. Umm cuz he installed the program 6 years ago. Yup, yup justice sometimes works like that. Nothin to do except to say ok, what’s next on the agenda … then sister forgets for the time being and we all move on and everyone’s happy – except Rich will have a bruised feeling which will deserve extra backrubbing. Yup yup that’s the way life works around here. Problems are followed by solutions, and if we ran out of problems, well why then would we need back rubs?
Hmpf I’d be put out of commission! That wouldn’t do at all?!!
Funny … thinking again of you DI … you wouldn’t want his negative attention too.
Sr. would just give you the evil eye and might talk to one of your co-workers about you … that’s the worse. I don’t know what I’d do if the Lord gave her the option of saying drop and do 50 push-ups! That be umm un-earthly?
It seems harder today to think of what you are doing. I’m not sure why that is.
There were a few other things that happened that I wanted to tell you about then I promise I will stop. The first one was about that car loan thing we talked about yesterday or last letter. We got Rich on the phone with us to talk to the next guy … and basically what they are saying is that they are giving us a car loan – they call it a Turbo-check we can take to any franchised car dealer and the check we get is blank and can be written for any amount between $5,000 and 29,216. The interest rate is 11.19% for 60 months. Right now my interest rate is 15.something. But, I don’t know how the deal would work out, because I paid a lot of over-expense on the Scion … I think it’s only worth $10,000 even though it’s 2006, and we owe $16,000 on it. So, that’s the deal, but Rich seems interested in trying to do something with it. So we’ll see where he goes with it. I really don’t mind the car. I’ve kept it nice and clean and it fits the chair and is nice and scooty. Wouldn’t mind taking down the payments though. We’ll see. We’ve got a month to make a deal.
The other deal was with the surgery … it’s an all going forward.
Pshwoo … we just got out of the second meeting for the day. The second is the staff meeting – not to be confused with the staff training meeting. Staff training is my meeting … staff meeting is on first Friday’s too – I switch off every other month attending this meeting with Holly on the opposite meeting one or the other of us has to watch the extra 46 clients. It’s just like holding a Thinking Group. So, basically this second meeting of the day is the meeting where mostly everything gets repeated to the DSPs after its been smoothed over by admin. Plus we get their input. I like this meeting best of all the meetings, because its pretty light.
There’s a problem now between the new Q and the newest DSP – they have formed an anti-government to Sr. and the rest. Yeeks. Well you can imagine how that’s going to go. Sr. is going through the processes she does before she releases someone.
She keeps repeating I made a mistake on that one. We keep saying uh huh, uh huh.
Ok, nuf of that. Except to say the couple of negative people actually 3 of them went down negative on the speaker when it was reviewed … couldn’t figure out why, except to make a statement. I think Candice the new Q is thinking she could do the job better because she came up with someone who could do the next presentation. Sr. looked at me during admin … and I looked back and said … sure why not? But, Candice doesn’t understand this is not going to save her … she’s still too close to being fired for anything this small to save her. She’s got to talk to the boss - Sr. She tries to ignore the boss … wrong way to go. As much as someone with an ego might not like taking orders from authority – it’s got to be respected otherwise there would be chaos and danger. They are just too young to see it.
Hmm …. Funny thing we just thought of too. The negative things these people are bringing up … don’t come up until they are in a public forum. Nothing is said one to one. Then there is a lot of going back to small groups to count the score. I know I’m going on an on here Thom and I apologize for it. I guess the only way to do it is to double image it. See how or if it applies to any situation you are or have been in. I don’t know if this is something everyone does … or if its more just women. I know that Rich and us – not to the same extent, but do talk over experiences between staff … but, he’s much quicker at blowing them off as non-important. I think you would be that way too. But, I see Rich get in relationship squabbles with others that he works with more with his Production coordinators and shipping/receivers, and upper-ups.
Maybe you watch the way your fellow recruits relate? Are there patterns of how people treat each other. Do some guys group up and others get left out? That’s one of the things I read about first as how you guys are supposed to work as teams. I would like some of that kind of training. I’d like people to work together. But, I’m most apt not to want to work with people that are negative … Sister is like we have to work with what we get, but I don’t like to be hurt. I know this small group is afraid of me because of my intelligence, directness, and authority, but as a group they try to “nit-pick” me which is irritating. I know my boss would as soon fire them and keep me … so that’s not the question. But, I’d like to have more respect than that. But, on the other side … I just don’t want to deal with them.
Rich would say just do your work. So, with that thought, I know he’s right … should be moving on.
I think I’m being a very confusing Mom right now. This is what happens maybe when I write in the middle of a first Friday.
I’m really sorry. I just stopped and did what I should have this morning. I made the next step arrangements for the surgery. I could only leave messages, but I let the RN’s from the Surgeon’s office know that everything was in that I knew of and they should or could probably start the insurance paperwork. Again this could be a month process waiting for them to say yes. One day at a time.
Hmm, you are thinking page 4 and what … no joke yet?? Wow she’s letting me down … Oh no Thom, I wouldn’t do that. Hold on we’ve got one coming up now … Hold on!
• Q. How did all the daytraders manage to fit under the limbo bar at their party?
A. They had all gone short.
• Q. How come the congo line kept breaking up at the daytrader's party?
A. Not many of them were willing to go long.
• Q. Why couldn't the Daytraders agree where they meet to get together?
A. They all wanted to keep their Options open until the last minute.
Shoot … those didn’t go over your head or nuthin, right? Hehehe just teasin smart man!
The Admiral
One night in a bar, sits a marine general, an army general, and a navy admiral. Each of them is claiming how brave their soldiers are. So they decide to have a test and see who has the bravest soldiers. The marine general goes first, so they all go the marine base, and the general calls out a private.
"Yes, Sir," says the private. The general says, "You see that tank out there. I want you to run at it, and don't turn back." He gets killed, and the marine general says, "My soldiers are the bravest."
The army general interjects and says, "No, no, no, my soldiers are the bravest." So they then go to the army base. The army general calls out a private. "Private!" "Yes, Sir." "You see that firing squad out there. I want you to run at it, and don't come back." He gets shot and killed, and the army general says, "My soldiers are the bravest."
The navy admiral interjects and says, "No, no, no, my soldiers are the bravest." So they then get on a navy ship. The admiral calls up to the guy in the Crow's Nest. He says, "Private." "Yes, Sir." "Jump." "Screw You!!!" "My soldiers are the bravest," exclaims the admiral.
OK, we’re going to jump lighter ….
Teacher: If I give you two rabbits and two rabbits and another two rabbits, how many rabbits have you got?
Paddy: Seven!
Teacher: No, listen carefully again. If I give you two rabbits and two rabbits and another two rabbits, how many rabbits have you got?
Paddy: Seven!
Teacher: Let's try this another way. If I give you two apples and two apples and another two apples, how many apples have you got?
Paddy: Six.
Teacher: Good. Now if I give you two rabbits and two rabbits and another two rabbits, how many rabbits have you got?
Paddy: Seven!
Teacher: How on earth do you work out that three lots of two rabbits is seven?
Paddy: I've already got one rabbit at home now!
See lighter?! Less fluffy?
Computer novices may feel like they're alone these days, but some of the following calls to IBM's help center show there are plenty of people out there who still are inching onto the information superhighway. After a caller gave a technician her PC's serial number, he scanned a database of registered users and responded, "I see you have an Aptiva" desktop unit. Before he could say another word, the caller shrieked and said she'd be right back. When the customer returned, the technician asked if she was all right. The caller responded: "Had I realized you could see me, I never would have telephoned in my bathrobe."
A customer who had just received a laptop computer asked about the power-saving feature known as "hibernate." Would this hibernate device work in the spring and summer, the caller asked.
Another caller explained she had received a gift of software on 5.25-inch diskettes, but she had only a 3.5-inch disk drive on her computer. The technician said she had two options: Get a second disk drive, or use 3.5-inch diskettes. The customer called back later, now complaining that her disk drive was making a terrible noise. And this despite the fact that she was using a 3.5-inch diskette, she said. After a bunch of questions, the technician determined the caller had used a pair of scissors to trim the 5.25-inch diskettes to fit the 3.5-inch drive.
A caller, perplexed that his new desktop computer - the one that was supposed to do everything short of bringing on world peace - was doing nothing, cried out for help.
No problem, the IBM technician said. First, open a "window" to launch a specific program. The conversation continued, and the caller asked a few moments later if it might be all right to close the window. Why, the IBM technician asked. Because, the caller responded, it was getting very chilly.
See Thom there are reasons why your country is calling you!
Hmm, as to news. Clinton is refusing to tell about the people he’s pardoned back when he was a principle. We’ll want to know your philosophy about super sneaky things.
Wow! I didn’t know this was happening … just speaking of sneaky things….
Goodell Seeks Harsher Spying Penalties
By DAVE GOLDBERG,
Associated Press
Posted: 2008-03-07 14:49:38
NEW YORK (AP) - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wants to crack down on spying next season with more inspections and harsher penalties, steps that follow the disciplining of the New England Patriots for taping opponents' signals.
Goodell is urging tougher action on teams and employees that would include unannounced inspections of locker rooms and coaches' areas in press boxes and a lower standard of proof for imposing discipline on those who violate rules. Loss of draft choices would be a possible punishment.
Hmm, this is news it follows something saying that Bush may be admitting a recession…
Fed Takes New Steps on Credit Crisis
By JEANNINE AVERSA,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-07 10:44:23
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Reserve is taking bigger steps to ease the nation's credit crisis, including increasing the amount of loans it plans to make available to banks this month to $100 billion.
The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it will boost the size of auctions planned for March 10 and March 24 to $50 billion each. That is up from the $30 billion limits it had previously announced. The auctions serve as short-term loans to get banks the cash they need to keep lending to their customers.
The Fed, in a statement, said it planned to continue the auctions for at least six months, and would move to even larger auction amounts if needed.
In a second step, the Fed said it will make $100 billion available to a broad range of financial players through a series of separate transactions starting on Friday.
The Fed has been working to pump billions of dollars into the banking system to aid an economy rocked by the subprime mortgage crisis and the severe tightening of credit. The central bank started its new type of auction in December to provide short-term loans to cash-strapped banks in hopes of keeping them lending. So far, the Fed has made available a total of $160 billion in short-term loans to banks through six auctions.
Hmm, this seems very suspicious.
CEOs Tied to Loan Crisis Made Millions
Posted: Friday 03/07/08 02:32 PM EST
Filed Under: Business News
AP / Getty Images
Lawmakers grill the current and former heads of three financial companies who collected millions of dollars as their companies lost huge amounts of money in the subprime mortgage crisis. "It seems that CEOs hit the lottery when their companies collapse," says one irate congressman.
This is a guy we can appreciate though …
23-Year Old Facebook CEO Is World's Youngest Billionaire
Posted Mar 7th 2008 1:22PM by Tim Stevens Filed under: Computers
The times they are a-changing. Back in the day, you needed to be a mogul perched high atop an industry that you helped create to to get a spot on the Forbes list of richest folks (either that or be the heir of one of those fortunes). These days, though, all it really takes is a good idea, some technical know-how, and a bit of luck. Those are things that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has in spades, which is why he's now the youngest self-made billionaire to appear on Forbes list of richest people in the world.
ACK SPACE ….
SQUEEZING IN LOVE YOU LOVE YOU MOM!!!!! THOM TAKE CARE!!!!
posted by Ann Marie @ 3/08/2008 07:43:00 PM
Comments: 0
